NEWS EQUITY: Staging a comeback

Mexicans are taking advantage of investors’ improving
view on LatAm equities, but issuers must still proceed with caution.
By Katie Llanos-Small

Mexican companies found equity markets warming to them in the
second quarter, with Alsea, Fibra Prologis and Fibra Uno all
closing successful capital raises in June.

The deals follow a sour start to the year for Latin
America’s equity markets, spurred by an investor
stampede out of emerging market funds — a trend that
has since ended.

"Equity outflows from emerging markets in the first quarter
were somewhat exaggerated both in quantity and relative to
recent history, and we’ve started to see a rebound
in the second quarter, a kind of pendulum swing, especially in
LatAm," said Mariano Espada, head of equity capital markets for
Latin America at UBS.

"Some of that is being channeled, as we speak, into specific
emerging market countries. That’s one of several
reasons why...